Linda Thornton
Director (linda@communityhigh.net)
Linda Thornton is a founding member and the director of Community High School. She graduated from Hollins in 1972 with a BA in English and then attended Brown University, graduating with an MAT in 1973. In 1976 she returned to Roanoke as an English teacher and has been active in alternative education, as a teacher, administrator or board member ever since.
Josh Chapman
Assistant Director, Academic Dean (josh@communityhigh.net)
Josh Chapman has been with Community High School since its inception. He attended Yale University, where he earned his BA in Anthropology in 1996; he also holds graduate degrees in Social Science and Creative Writing, both from Hollins University. He teaches courses across the Humanities, including Anthropology, History, Film and Literature. His fiction has appeared in a number of magazines in the United States and Canada, and has been anthologized in New Stories from the South.
John McBroom
Dean of Students, Program Coordinator of Music (john@communityhigh.net)
John McBroom has been a touring and recording musician for the last 12 years, playing in jam bands, bluegrass and jazz ensembles. He has been involved in over a dozen CD projects as a musician, producer and executive producer. He also teaches algebra and Geometry.
Roni Sutton
Business Manager, Registrar (roni@communityhigh.net)
Roni Sutton earned a BA degree in Mathematics from Columbia College, a women’s liberal arts college in Columbia, SC, in 1989. She is active in area alternative education as a non-profit board member and officer as well as the President of the Bedford Historical Society Board of Trustees.
Brian Counihan
Dean of Art and Humanities (brian@communityhigh.net)
Brian Counihan is a full time faculty member of Community High School. He grew up in the Republic of Ireland and received a degree in painting and printmaking from one of Ireland’s top four-year art institutions. He has a BA in art history from Northwestern University, where he also received his MALS, focusing on contemporary culture. He was summa cum laude undergraduate and received the academic award for best thesis for his master’s degree. Previous to joining Community High School, Brian was teaching studio art as an adjunct faculty member at Randolph Macon Women’s College and Lynchburg College.
Les Epstein
(lesepstein@cox.net)
Les Epstein spent twenty years in theater and opera management, including seasons as education director and production coordinator for Opera Columbus (Ohio) and seven as the executive director for the Children’s Theatre of Winston-Salem (NC). He is also a seasoned stage director, librettist and playwright, and in those capacities has worked for such companies as The Piedmont Opera, Toledo Opera, Children’s Theatre of Winston-Salem, the Brock Center for the Arts, the Andy Griffith Playhouse, the Contemporary American Theatre, Columbus Light Opera, New York’s Washington Square Players, with which he made his Off-Off Broadway debut in 1986 and the Belfast Maskers Theatre. Les received undergraduate degrees in theater performance and English from Otterbein College, a Master’s in English from Miami (Ohio) University and continued with studies in literature at New York University and Theatre Education at The Ohio State University. He completed his teacher training at Mary Baldwin College.
Safia Yonker
(safia@communityhigh.net)
Safia Yonker teaches Math, Science and Computer Science at Community High School. Additionally, Community High’s web page has benefited from her interest in web development. Safia received a BS in Physics from the University of Virginia and an MS in Computational Physics from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Beyond teaching and web design, Safia enjoys walking her dogs, gardening and playing music with her husband and son.
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Jonathon Freezer
(jonathon@communityhigh.net)
Jonathon earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Natural Science in Biology from Southeast Missouri State University. He currently teaches within the sciences at Community High, including curriculum in Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, and Science Seminar. Outside the classroom, Jonathon is an active classical musician and helped start and continues to work with the Wekiwa Springs Fresh Water Turtle Study in Apopka, Florida. This study, which monitors over 5000 turtles in the central Florida region, is one of the largest studies of its kind and continues to draw interest from wildlife conservation groups across the globe.
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Simon Nolen
Simon Nolen graduated from Temple University in 2002 with a degree in Film and Media Arts. He is a winner of the Comcast Philadelphia Screenwriting Award and is a former touring musician, with additional academic interests in African American culture, Philosophy and Theology.